Sunday's Portland Winterhawk's News and Notes: Portland Goes 2-1 at Everett Tourney

Middendorf

Portland Beats Spokane, Tri City, Falls to Everett:
-I wrote a piece recapping Portland's preseason action at the annual Everett tournament. It should be posting soon :.http://www.sonicsrising.com/seattle-sin-bin

Specifically on Sunday's 4-3 Loss to Everett:
-As I was only able to attend Sunday's game, I have a few more observations here:

Veloso

• Colton Veloso, who is hoping to make the team as an 18 year old this year, after playing in a few games each of the last two seasons, was part of the first unit penalty kill with Latvian forward Rodrigo Abols. Veloso's effort was impressive. Twice during two different kills, he forced turnovers in Everett's zone and then held the puck in deep, despite having several Everett D-men draped all over him. If Veloso makes the roster, excelling at a role like this, will be a huge reason why.
• Alex Overhardt, Cody Glass and Carl Ericson have not played in a game together prior to tonight, but you would not know that, watching them live. The three, played a fast paced game and seemed to know where each other would be at all times. Ericson, could have tried to force a play towards the net, but instead, spun around and found a streaking Overhardt, who showed off an impressive, heavy shot for Portland's 1st goal. This line would end up accounting for all three of the Hawk's goals.

  

  Overhardt

• Dominic Turgeon and Paul Bittner played with each other on the top line, hoping some chemistry there will carry into the regular season. While both looked great, individually, they did not quite click together.
• Ethan Middendorf is a huge (6'6") Goalie, who moves smoothly in net north to south. He showed solid vision on point shots, but really seemed to struggle with shots coming off of cross ice passes. Every time he moved across the net, he went down too early and exposed a lot of room on either side of himself. Maybe, this was due to nerves, but if a Goalie goes down too quickly, it takes away the advantage his size gives him.
• Evan Weinger and Skyler McKenzie did not play a single game this weekend. They are reportedly battling minor injuries. Their absence gave Cody Glass, Jack Flaman, Colton Veloso and Mitch Walter the opportunity to skate in all three games.
• Hopefully, the two Too Many Men on the Ice penalties are not a sign of things to come, with Portland missing Assistant Coach Keith McKittrick. His recent legal situation leaves Portland without someone experienced with and in charge of forward, line changes.
• Rodrigo Abols, made a really slick individual play, undressing an Everett D-man and getting a shot off in tight, where it looked like he would not be able to. He should impress at the Vancouver Canuck's Young Stars Tournament where he is attending on a free agent try out.

Haar Signed by Alaska Aces:
-Former Winterhawk D-man Garett Haar (2013-14) was signed by the ECHL's Alaska Aces. Haar had 45 points with South Carolina (ECHL) last season and was an ECHL All Star.

Koules

Koules Joins Texeira at Capital's Camp:
-Former Winterhawk Miles Koules (2014-15) was among those free agent invitees, named to the Washington Capital's 23 man roster for their rookie tournament. Keoni Texeira and Koules will head down for the 4 day event in Estero, Florida, which starts on September 11th.

Ethan Price Officially Signed by Victoria:
-There has been much speculation on Twitter over whether now former Winterhawk Ethan Price, would indeed be signed by the Victoria Royals, who recently placed him on their protected list. That was over last Wednesday, when the Royals officially signed him. He then showed his potential with a goal Sunday and an assist on Friday, for 2 points in 2 preseason games. The 18 year old forward looks to take on his former team to open the season in Victoria on 9/25.

Hossa a Hall of Famer?
-A good piece by Scott Powers of ESPN on whether or not former Winterhawk (1997-98) Marian Hossa should be named to the Hall of Fame when he retires. The argument against Hossa has never made much sense to me as, while he never won an MVP award, he was an elite scorer for many seasons and as his career went on, he developed a better 2-way game. Three Stanley Cup rings and Five total trips to the NHL final, should also help end the debate once and for all.

Preseason  Continues:
-Portland continues preseason play with a game at the Tri City preseason tournament on Wednesday night vs. Prince George. I would expect all nine of the Hawks attending NHL rookie tournaments to be out of the lineup for all three games (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday).

Tuesday's Portland Winterhawks News and Notes: A Peek at the Preseason Depth Chart

Keegan Iverson

What Will the Preseason Roster Look Like?:
-Now that the Neely Cup is over we can take a closer look at how the preseason roster will look:
Red=Played 10 or fewer games in the WHL and is considered a rookie.

LW	C	RW	Left D	Right D	Goalie
Paul Bittner (96)	Dominic Turgeon (96)	Alex Schoenborn (95)	Caleb Jones (96)	Jack Dougherty (96)	Adin Hill (96)
Skyler McKenzie (98)	Rodrigo Abols (96)	Keegan Iverson (96)	Blake Heinrich (95)	Keoni Texira (97)	Mike Bullion (97)
Jack Flaman (97)	Carl Ericson (96)	Evan Weinger (97)	Brendan De Jong (98)	Nick Heid (97)	Ethan Middendorf (99)
Mitchell Walter (96)	Alex Overhardt (97)	Cody Glass (99)	Conor MacEachern (98)	Carter Czaikowski (98)
Colton Veloso (97)	Reed Morison (98)	Brett Clayton (98)	Jake Hobson (99)	Jackson Caller (99)
Austin Gray (97)

Preseason Schedule:
-Friday 9/4 vs. Spokane (At Everett Tournament) 3:00 pm
-Saturday 9/5 vs. Tri City (At Everett Tournament) 11:30 am
-Sunday 9/6 @Everett (At Everett Tournament) 7:00 pm
-Wednesday 9/9 vs. Prince George (At Tri City Tournament) 7:00 pm
-Thursday, 9/10 vs. Spokane (At Tri City Tournament) 3:00 pm
-Friday 9/11 vs. Everett (At Tri City Tournament) 11:00 am
-Friday 9/18 vs. Everett (At Winterhawks Skating Center) 7:00 pm

-Portland right now has 29 players signed to WHL contracts and I would not be too surprised to see a forward or two from the 1999 or 2000 age group signed in order to have a full roster while 9 of those 29 players miss preseason action at NHL training camps.

Bittner

Who Will Miss What Preseason Games?:
Paul Bittner (Drafted by Columbus in 2015 and signed to an NHL ELC)
-Columbus plays in Detroit's Traverse City Tournament which takes place from 9/11-9/15. Then main camp starts after that. I would expect Bittner to miss all preseason action after the Everett tourney and be questionable for the regular season's first two games on 9/25 and 9/26 in Victoria. As a signed player, he will likely get into a preseason game or two with CBJ.

Dominic Turgeon (Drafted by Detroit in 2014 and signed to an NHL ELC)
-Detroit plays in that same tournament on 9/11-9/15, so I would place Turgeon in the same boat as Bittner with missing the last 4 preseason games and possibly the first two games of the season. I would be shocked if they were both out when Portland hosts their home opener on October 3rd however.

Schoenborn

Alex Schoenborn (Drafted by San Jose in 2014)
-Due to being a late birth date Schoenborn does not have to be signed by the Sharks until next June. The Sharks do have the option to send him to the AHL, because he is 20 but it's far more likely they want to see what he can do at the WHL level, especially since he missed close to half of last season with an injury. San Jose has their "Futures Game" against Anaheim on Saturday, September 12th and I would expect Schoenborn to be with them earlier in the week. This means he is another payer who will probably only see the first three preseason games. Alex should be back by the time Portland's season is underway.

 Caleb Jones (Drafted by Edmonton in 2015)
-Jones will be a part of the Youngstars  Classic in Penticton, B.C. on September 11th-15th. I would expect him to then spend some time at Edmonton's main camp, before coming back to the Hawks for the start of the season.

Jack Dougherty (Drafted by Nashville in 2014 and signed to an NHL ELC)
-Rookie camp begins for Nashville on 9/10 and they will then take part of a rookie tournament from 9/12-9/15 in Estero, Florida. Main camp then begins on 9/17. As a signed prospect, Dougherty is in a similar situation as Bittner and Turgeon. Though, since Nashville has not really gotten an extended look at him yet due to college rules, I would expect him to see some action in at least a couple of their 6 preseason games. I would expect him back after the first three preseason NHL games from 9/20-9/23, but would not be surprised if he hung around until the next week's game (9/29).

Hill

Adin Hill (Drafted by Arizona in 2015)
-The coyotes have two rookie camp games scheduled vs. the L.A. Kings on 9/15 and 9/16. Thus, I would expect Adin to join them probably a couple days earlier in the week. He should be able to see at least a game in the Tri City preseason tourney then. Now that Portland has three signed Goalies, they will likely split the first 6 games of the preseason with each getting to play two full games. With several older goalies ahead of him on the depth chart in AZ, if Hill sees anymore preseason action, it would probably only be one game like Brendan Burke got last season for the 'Yotes.

Rodrigo Abols (Invited by Canucks to Young Stars Camp)
-The 19 year old Latvian apparently impressed enough at the Neely Cup that the Canucks already heard and sent him an invite to the Young Stars tourney in Penticton. It goes 9/11-9/15 and I would fully expect Abols to come back to Portland after it was over, unless he completely blew the socks off of the Canuck's coaching staff and snagged an invite to main camp.

Keegan Iverson (Drafted by N.Y. Rangers in 2014)
-The Rangers are a part of the Traverse City tournament in Michigan. Since the Rangers only have until next June to decide whether or not to sign Iverson, they will probably hold onto him for a little while at main camp, as well. He's another that should be back by opening night in Victoria.

Texeira

Keoni Texeira (Should be on Invite List to Washington Capital's Rookie Camp)
-Washington invited Keoni to their development camp this summer and usually most of those individuals make it to rookie camp in September. This is due to the fact that the Caps have to send a full roster of 22 players down to Estero, Florida for the camp, which goes from 9/12-9/15. As an invitee, I would fully expect him to head back to Portland after this camp.

Evan Weinger, Carl Ericson and Blake Heinrich are some of those that could receive an invite to an NHL training camp, but this is probably unlikely. Ericson missed the Neely Cup as he was with Sweden's U-20 World Juniors team at the 4 Nations Cup. He should be back in order to play in Everett this weekend.

Neely Cup Recap:
-I wrote a recap of Team Dafoe's win at the Neely Cup last weekend.
-The most noticeable absence from the Neely Cup, besides Ericson was Cole Guttman. Portland drafted him in the 8th round of the 2014 Bantam Draft and he was in camp last year. He has not yet committed to a college, but unless it was due to injury, his absence does not bode well for a future in Portland.
-One of several North West born players at the Neely Cup was Brendan Studioso (1999) who was originally drafted by Everett in last year's Bantam Draft in the 7th round and scored 53 points in 39 games for the Jr. Silvertips.

More Progression Expected from Turgeon:
-In a piece on MLive, Dominic Turgeon was profiled. This season a lot will be expected from Turgeon who has played extremely well at time over the last two season, but never consistently. He was buried on the depth chart last year behind Nic Petan and Chase De Leo, but will be the team's top Center this season and will carry a lot of the load on the power play and penalty kill. Portland is hoping he is able to handle this task.

Rattie

Rattie Has a Chance to Win a Top 6 Role with St. Louis:
-First the Blues traded away T.J. Oshie, now Patrick Berglund will start the season on the disabled list. Former Winterhawk Ty Rattie (2010-2013) has a huge opportunity in front of him and if he performs well at training camp, he could finally cement a role with the Blues.

Morrow Says Bouncing Between AHL and NHL Helped:
-Leave it to former Winterhawk Joe Morrow to turn conventional wisdom on it's head. He apparently believes that going on a yo-yo last season between the NHL's Boston Bruins and AHL's Providence Bruins helped his game. He says that constantly never knowing what to expect helped him adapt to the professional level.

Wednesday's Portland Winterhawks News and Notes: Hawks Back in Town

Hawks Arrive for Fitness Testing:

Solid day at fitness testing, excited for camp to get rolling tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/qhwbZutmIK

— Nick Heid (@nickheid14) August 27, 2015

-Training camp got going underway today as the annual fitness testing took place. The Neely Cup starts tomorrow at 4:00 pm with Team Dafoe taking on Team May and then later (at 6:00 pm) Team Langkow plays against Team LaBarbera. The 4 squads are being named after the 4 of the highest drafted Winterhawk's goalies in team history. Here are when and where the 4 Goalies were drafted:
-Darrell May- 1980-5th round-91st overall-Chicago Blackhawks.
-Byron Dafoe-1989-2nd round-35th overall-Washington Capitals.
-Scott Langkow-1993-2nd round-31st overall-Winnipeg Jets.
-Jason LaBarbera-1998-3rd round-66th overall-New York Rangers.
Portland has had 11 total Goalies drafted to the NHL since 1977.

McKittrick

McKittrick Arrest Details Released:
-KPTV Portland released the arrest details involving the incident Portland Assistant Coach Keith McKittrick was involved in on August 16th in Beaverton at around 7:30 am. The Police arrested McKittrick for 4th degree Assault, Strangulation and Domestic Menacing. He is currently out on $2,500 bail and is expected in court on September 14th. Portland management has been pretty tight lipped so far but they did say that he is currently on "administrative leave." Therefore, I would not expect him to be with the Hawks until after he sees his day in court.

What is Going to Happen to the Coliseum?:
-A study was recently released that Veterans Memorial Coliseum is losing around $55,000 each year. Any sort of renovations are being expected to cost between $35 Million and $142 Million. The cheapest option is the $14 Million that it would take to actually just tear the building down. Overall, not a great outlook for an arena that's been in flux for the last 3 years and continue to be so until the city of Portland can decide what it wants to do.

Bellows

4 Hawk's Prospects Named to CCM/USA All American Prospects Game:
-Kieffer Bellows, Garrett Wait, Samuel Rossini and Mitchell Mattson were all named to the 4th annual AAPG. A Winterhawk roster player has played in each game so far with Seth Jones (2012), Keegan Iverson (2013), Chase De Leo (2013) and Paul Bittner (2014) all having played in the game. The game will take place on September 24th in Buffalo at the First Niagra Center.

McLaren Signed by San Jose:
-Former Winterhawk Frazer McLaren (2003-08) was signed by the San Jose Sharks to a 1 year, 2 way deal. He played all of last season for the AHL's Toronto Marlies where he registered 1 assist and 62 PIMs in just 22 games. It appears he may get another chance to stick with the Sharks after playing for the Worcester/San Jose Sharks from 2008 to 2012.

Top 5 WHL Teams of All Time Revealed:
-Andy Eide of Sportsnet revealed the final 5 in his list of the top 25 WHL teams of all time. Not too surprisingly, considering the story, the 1989 Swift Current Broncos topped the list. The Joe Sakic led squad beat the host Saskatoon Blades for the Memorial Cup that year. Gregg Drinnan's book: "Sudden Death," is a must read on this team.

Ryan Johansen Throws Out First Pitch:

-Former Winterhawk Ryan Johansen (2009-11) was on hand for the Cincinnati Reds game against the Detroit Tigers on Monday and he threw out the first pitch. 

Friday's Winterhawks News and Notes: What's the Deal with the Price Situation?

A whole lot of stuff going on in the world of the Portland Winterhawks the last couple of days.

Price Released by Hawks; Will He Report to Royals Camp?:
-The Portland Winterhawks have released Ethan Price from their protected list, no doubt expecting that he wanted to stay and play for his hometown Lincoln Stars of the USHL. Price left the teams last season after playing 38 games, scoring 4 goals and 5 assists for 9 points. The reason cited for his leaving the team was some "family issues" and it made sense as Price was able to return and play at home and live with his family. The move back to Lincoln came at a poor time in terms of his development as after being buried on the 4th line for much of the first part of the season, he began playing some with Dominic Turgeon on the team's 3rd line to some positive results. He scored goals on consecutive nights 12/27 and 12/28 against Seattle and Spokane respectively. He was starting to play consistent hockey and driving at the net to dig pucks out of those tough areas. Price's physical play was starting to pick up as well.

Oregonian reporter Scott Sepich broke the news:

In Winterhawksnews, I've been told that Ethan Price is planning to remain in the USHL with Lincoln this season and won't return to Portland— Scott Sepich(@SSepich) August 19, 2015

It was expected that if Price decided to come back and play in the WHL, he would do so for a team in Portland that could use some players who had scored goals at the WHL level before, after losing their top 3 scorers. Instead Price was dropped off of the Hawk's 50 man protected list a little while ago.

F Ethan Price will not play for the USHL's Lincoln Stars next season. He will be attending the Victoria Royals training camp. #WHL

— Dickson Liong (@DLLiong) August 20, 2015

I was then surprised to read from Vancouver, B.C. area reporter: Dickson Liong that Price had been picked up by the Victoria Royals and was expected to attend Royal's camp beginning August 31st. Reportedly, Price himself has said that this is not true and he will be returning to play for the Lincoln Stars. If Price left the Hawks due to being too far from home, why would he then go play for a team that's not even in his home country? I guess we will have to wait for Royals camp to begin before we can truly say for sure that Price will not go there, but at this point I would side with the people saying he will play for the Stars.

Bittner Signed by Blue Jackets:
-I wrote a piece for the Seattle Sin Bin, detailing Bittner being signed by the Columbus Blue Jackets. I would expect him to now get some extended looks at Columbus training camp and maybe even get into a preseason game or two, like Oliver Bjorkstrand did for CBJ last preseason.

Greer

Greer Released by Hawks:
-Another 2012 Winterhawk's draft pick, who has played game for Portland: Defenseman Justin Greer is no longer on Portland's protected list and so has been dropped by the Hawks. Greer showed potential as a 16 year old in 2013/14; getting into 6 games total over two different stints with the team (December 13-17, 2013 and March 5-8, 2014). Greer was pointless but notched a +1 overall in the 6 games. He showed signs of being a smooth skating, puck moving D-man. Then during training camp in 2014, with a spot on the Hawk's blue line seemingly his for the taking, he came down with an illness that kept him out of hockey for the entire 2014/15 season. It's unknown at this point, if Greer has retired from hockey, but one would expect that if he were to play hockey this season, it would be somewhere in his hometown of Edmonton, Alberta.

Thomas Frazee Signs Deal with ECHL Team:
-Former Winterhawk Thomas Frazee (2005-07) signed a deal with the ECHL's Gwinnett Gladiators Wednesday. Frazee was traded by the Greenville Road Warriors to Gwinnett in June in exchange for forward Anthony Luciani. Last season, the big former first round Bantam pick (in 2005) of the Winterhawks, had 18 goals and 23 assists for a combination of the Fort Wayne Comets, the Evansville Icemen and Greenville. He even played several games in the AHL for the Charlotte Checkers. Frazee is the definition of a "well traveled, journeyman hockey player." He was drafted by the Hawks 11th overall and played for them during his 15 and 16 year old seasons, amassing 7 goals and 6 assists in 76 total games, before being traded to Medicine Hat before his 17 year old season. Frazee would then play for three other WHL teams before going on to a professional career.

Jones Spotlighted by Edmonton Journal:
-The Edmonton Journal profiled the Oiler's 4th round pick in this June's draft: Portland's Caleb Jones. It does a pretty good job of going over all of the scouting reports on Jones. They all seem to agree that he a tireless player who will not be out-worked on the ice. He is reportedly not dominant in one thing but is solid at all areas. In the several games I watched him play at the World Juniors Evaluation Camp, he demonstrated a gritty, tough game and also showed that his skating is probably just as good as his older brother and former Hawk: Seth Jones. As a younger brother myself, I can attest that when you have an older brother beating you at sports all of the time, it tends to put a chip on your shoulder and inspires you to play aggressively at all times. If Caleb makes it to the NHL, it will be because he is being driven in this way and is going to work harder than the next guy. Interestingly enough, he could be competing for an NHL contract with Seattle's Ethan Bear, who was drafted a round later than Caleb by Edmonton. This will add an underlying story line to each Seattle-Portland game this season.

1997-98 Teams Comes in at #7 on List: 
-Andy Eide over at Sportsnet is nearing the conclusion of his "Top 25 WHL teams of all time" in celebration of the 50th season of the WHL. Portland landed their 3rd and likely final team in the top 25 with their 1997-98 Memorial Cup winning squad, ranking 7th. The team that had the likes of Marian Hossa, Brenden Morrow, Todd Robinson, Andrew Ference, Kevin Haupt and Brent Belecki is the Hawk's best team of all time in my opinion and Andy's as well. I have so many fond memories of that year; the top one being Belecki corralling a loose puck with seconds left to play and Portland leading by one goal in Game 7 of the Western Conference Final. It will be interesting to see where Andy has Swift Current's 1989 team in the top 5 overall (I'm assuming they are in there).

Leier Rated as #13 Flyers Prospect:
-Broad Street Hockey looks at where former Winterhawk Taylor Leier (2011-14) ranks among Flyers prospects. Leier's 31 points last season were not too bad for his first professional season, but he will probably need to fare better at the AHL level, before the Flyers will call him up for an NHL debut.

Phillips

Two New Names on Prospect's List:
-Clayton Phillips (1999 born D-man) and Noah Lee (2000 born D-man) were two new names on the Winterhawks "Prospects List" on their website. Phillips is a 5'11" 161 lb left-handed D-man, who is going into his Junior year at Edina High School in Minnesota. He played with fellow Hawk's prospect Garrett Wait with Edina and also was on "Team Grey" at the USA Select 16 camp this summer, where he had 4 points in 5 games. Lee is 5'8" and 154 lbs and played for Anaheim Jr. Ducks Bantam AAA team last season. At the U.S. Select 15 camp, he notched two assists in 5 games for "Team Kelly." He played with 2015 Portland Bantam Draft pick: Stanislav Demin last year. Neither of the two D-men have committed to NCAA schools as of yet.

Wellar Re-signs With Alaska
-Former Winterhawk: Patrick Wellar (1999-2003) has signed a contract with the ECHL's Alaska Aces. The 31 year old from Carrot River, Saskatchewan was a player/assistant coach with the Utah Grizzlies last year, but it appears he will not keep that same role with Alaska. Since turning pro in 2004, he has jumped back and forth between AHL and ECHL teams, winning three different Kelly Cups in that time.

Tuesday's Winterhawk's News and Notes: Carruth Signed by Rockford

Carruth

Mac Carruth Receives 1 Year AHL Deal:
-The Chicago Blackhawk's AHL affiliate: the Rockford Icehogs signed former Winterhawk Mac Carruth (2009-13) to a 1 year AHL deal. Carruth was steady for the ECHL's Indy Fuel last season, posting a 17-13 record with a 2.55 GAA and 0.914 Save %. After the Fuel's season ended, he joined Rockford as a back up, making 1 appearance in the Calder Cup playoffs in relief during Game 5 of their Western Conference Semi-final vs. Detroit's AHL affiliate: the Garand Rapids Griffins. He gave up 2 goals on 15 shots and Rockford lost the game 5-3 and the series 4 games to 1. Carruth figures to be in a good spot with Rockford, as Chicago traded away Antti Raanta in the off-season, meaning that Michael Leighton and Carruth are the only Goalies under contract for the Icehogs currently. Chicagos' NHL duo of goalies is seemingly set as well with Corey Crawford and Scott Darling. This is a big season for Carruth, who is 11 years younger than the journeyman Leighton and is in a position to learn a lot from the veteran back-stopper.

McManus and U.S. U-17s Win 5 Nations Cup:
-2014 Portland Bantam Draft pick: Brannon McManus and the team USA U-17 team won the 5 Nations Tournament on Sunday, with a 8-1 win over Germany. Team USA went 4-0 overall and out-scored their opponents 29-8. McManus had 4 goals and 1 assist for 5 points in the 4 games and continues to excel at scoring in tournaments. He had 11 points in 5 games at the USA Select 16 camp recently and had 10 points in 5 games at the USA Select 15 camp last season. McManus should be playing in the USHL as a 16 year old this season with the Omaha Lancers. He's committed to play for the University of Minnesota, starting in 2017.

Rossini and Wait Help Lock Up 5th Place at Ivan Hlinka Cup:
-Winterhawk's prospects: Sam Rossini and Garrett Wait helped lead the Team USA U18 squad to a 5th place finish at the Ivan Hlinka Cup, after they beat the Czech Republic 5-4 last Friday. Spokane Chief's forward: Kailer Yamamoto had two goals in the game, including the game winner in the 3rd period.
-Canada won their 8th Ivan Hlinka Gold Medal in a row with a 7-3 victory over Sweden on Sunday. Vancouver Giant Tyler Benson and Calgary Hitman Brock Malenstyn had goals for Canada. The younger brother of former Winterhawk Anton Cederholm: Jacob Cederholm was a top pairing D-man for Sweden in the tournament.

Spencer

T-birds Trade Calvin Spencer:
-19 year old forward Calvin Spencer was traded by Seattle to Swift Current for a conditional 6th round Bantam pick in the 2017 draft.  The 6'1" 216 lb power forward from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota had 6 points and 17 penalty minutes in 32 games in 2013/14 and 13 points and 76 PIMs in 67 games last year. Spencer in the vein of a lot of power forwards has struggled with consistent play but should fit in well with the Broncos where they always seem to have a ton of big forwards and play a very physical game.

Two Winterhawk's Teams Make Top 25 WHL Teams List:
-The Hawks' squad that fell just short in the Memorial Cup Final in 2013, came in at #16 on Sportnet's: top 25 WHL Teams of all time. That squad set a franchise record with 57 wins and had one of the best top 4 D-man pairings in Troy Rutkowski, Seth Jones, Tyler Wotherspooon and Derrick Pouliot, that I've ever seen at the WHL level. Jones, Wotherspoon and Pouliot had all played NHL games by 2014.

-The 1982/83 Winter Hawk's team that lost the WHL final, but won the Memorial Cup, behind "acquired" Goalie Mike Vernon came in at #13 on the list. That squad was led by Randy Heath, Ken Yaremchuk, Grant Sasser, Cam Neely, Richard Kromm and Brad Duggan, who all had 100 points or more.

Thursday's Winterhawks News and Notes: Ference's Letter

Ference

Ference Faxed a Letter to Every NHL Team After Not Being Ranked:
-Former Winterhawk Defenseman: Andrew Ference (1994-99) recently tweeted out a photo of a letter that he said he faxed to every NHL team back in 1997. This was after not being invited for physical testing, or being ranked by Central Scouting Bureau. The letter can be found here and is simply delightful. Ference was drafted in the 8th round by Pittsburgh and has played 17 seasons for Pittsburgh, Calgary, Boston and Edmonton (where he is currently playing). He won a Memorial Cup with Portland in 1998 and won a Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011. My favorite Ference related memory is when the Calgary Hitmen and highly touted and leading WHL scorer: Pavel Brendl invaded Portland during the 1998-99 season. Ference shut Brendl down that night and even laid him flat with a clean open ice check. He always seemed to be driven the most when he was doubted. In comparison, Brendl, who was drafted 4th overall in 1999, ended up playing a total of 78 NHL games.

Brendl

Sportsnet's Top 25 WHL Team so All Time:
-Writer Andy Eide and Sportsnet are doing a cool feature this summer by counting down their list of the top 25 teams in the history of the WHL. Yesterday the #25-21 teams were revealed. The same Calgary Hitmen 1998-99 team I mentioned before is listed at #24 overall. The Winterhawks received a mention in a note about the #25 team: the 2001/02 Kootenay Ice. Portland was the #1 seed out of the U.S. Division, but were upset by Seattle in the 1st round. This along with the other top seed Kamloops being knocked off early, helped make the route to glory easy on the Ice.

McManus Shines at U-17 Five Nations Cup:
-Portland's 2014 fourth round pick: Brannon McManus has scored a goal in both the exhibition game and opening match for Team USA to the Five Nations Cup. In Wednesday's 5-4 win over the Czech Republic, McManus scored his team's opening goal, helping to cut into an early 2-0 Czech lead. His marker came on the penalty kill. Team USA's next game is Friday morning against Slovakia. McManus scored 86 points in 55 games last season for Shattuck St. Mary's and has committed to play for the University of Minnesota in 2017/18.

Wait

Wait Records an Assist at U-18 Ivan Hlinka Cup:
-Meanwhile at the U-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Team USA finally recorded their first win Wednesday; a 7-3 rout of Slovakia. The win means that they will play for 5th place Friday against the Czech Republic. Portland's Bantam Draft Pick: Garrett Wait, recorded an assist on the American's 7th goal.

Meanwhile, Canada blew out Switzerland 9-2, sending them to a Semi-Final vs. Russia, in search of their 20th Gold Medal and 8th in a row. Twelve of the 22 Canadian players are from the WHL, including Everett's Goalie: Carter Hart. I've watched all three of Canada's games so far and I came away most impressed with Kelowna's Dillon Dube, Vancouver's Tyler Benson and Brandon's Kale Clague. Benson opened the scoring against the Swiss Wednesday, when he split the defense and shelved a backhand past the opposing Goalie in a highlight reel goal. Clague is excellent on both ends and showed great adeptness at finding an open shooting lane on the offensive side. Both should be high draft picks in the 2016 NHL draft.

Caldwell Doing Yeoman's Work:
-Once again Alan Caldwell over at "Small Thoughts at Large" released the list of Portland Winterhawk's prospects with stats and notes. As far as I could tell, there was only one name listed that is not listed in the Winterhawks protected list on their website. That is 19 year old Goalie: Eric Schierhorn out of Anchorage, Alaska. According to Caldwell, Schierhorn was listed on the Hawk's official protected list last Spring. He was named the USHL Goalie of the year last season while playing for the Muskegon Lumberjacks. Schierhorn is expected to play for the University of Minnesota in 2015/16.

Tuesday's Winterhawks News and Notes: 3 Winterhawk's Prospects Compete at Ivan Hlinka U-18 Memorial Cup

Rossini

Rossini, Crone, Wait and Team USA Start Out 0-2:
-Hawk's prospects: Garrett Wait, Henry Crone and  Sam Rossini are all currently playing for Team USA at the annual Ivan Hlinka U-18 Memorial Cup. The tournament has been held every year since 1991 and is looked at as a big event for NHL scouts to look at the next draft's top prospects. Canada has dominated the tourney historically, winning 19 of 24 Cups and the last 7 in a row. The USA last won Gold in 2003 and was looking to return to glory this year.

Unfortunately they dropped their opening contest on Monday: 5-1 to Finland and followed it up today with a 5-2 loss to Russia. If the U.S. wins their final Group match tomorrow against Slovakia they will play for 5th on Friday. If they lose tomorrow they will play for 7th Friday. Considering there are only 8 total teams at the tournament, this has not been a great showing for the Americans.

Forward Garrett Wait was drafted by Portland in the 8th round of the 2013 Bantam Draft and recently had a strong showing at the United State's Select 17 camp, scoring 9 points in 5 games. At the U-18 Cup, he played mostly on the U.S.'s 4th line with a combination of William Knierem (Dubuque-USHL), Hugh McGing (Cedar Rapids-USHL) and John Leonard (Green Bay-USHL). Wait was pointless in the first 2 games. He has committed to play for the University of Minnesota, starting in 2016.

Crone

Forward Henry Crone was a "protected list" addition for the Winterhawks and is a native of Dallas, Texas. Crone had an assist in the U.S.A.'s 2-1 Exhibition loss to the Czech Republic last weekend, when his shot was deflected by teammate Timmy Gettinger (Sault Ste. Marie-OHL) past the Czech Goalie. In the loss to Finland, he skated on the team's 2nd line with Benjamin Lown (Wichita Falls-NAHL) and Riley Tufte (Fargo-USHL), but did not play in today's loss to Russia. I watched the Exhibition loss to the Czech Republic and Crone was one of the most dynamic players the Americans had. At one point, he split two defenders and went in all alone on the C.R. Goalie, before going to his backhand and getting beat by a quick left pad. Crone is committed to Boston University and will play for them in 2016. Next season, he should be playing for Omaha of the USHL.

Defenseman Samuel Rossini is another "protected list" addition by the Hawks and is a big rearguard (6'3" 194 lbs) from Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. Rossini was named an Assistant Captain for the Ivan Hlinka tournament and played significant minutes over the first two games as a top 4 pairing D-man. Today, Rossini had an assist on a goal scored by Spokane Chief's forward: Kailer Yamamoto. Rossini is committed to play for the University of Minnesota in 2016 and should be playing for the Waterloo Blackhawks of the USHL, this coming season.

Kolle

Ty Kolle at Cariboo Cougars Camp:
-Winterhawk's top 2015 Bantam Draft pick: Ty Kolle, impressed at the BCMML's: Cariboo Cougar's summer evaluation camp over the weekend. Cougar's General Manager and Head Coach: Tyler Sprague said Kolle is a player who: "has great character and plays a full 200 foot game." Kolle will play the 2015/16 season for the Cariboo Cougars and could play a few games in Portland this year, as soon as he is signed. There has been a  bit of a pipeline going from the Prince George area to Portland over the last season, as both Austin Gray and Conor MacEachern were signed from the Cariboo organization.

Pouliot Playing as Top 4 D-man in 2015?:
-Former Winterhawk Derrick Pouliot could be looking at a top 4 position among the Pittsburgh PenguinsD-men, after the team lost Paul Martin in the off-season. Hockey Buzz looked at some advance stats to answer this question. It appears that he has elite NHL level puck possession skills and we all know he has high end offensive ability. The big question is whether he can be consistent in his own zone? I think that he can grow into this role over the next season or two as he's forced to learn on the fly with the Pens. He is also training this off-season with Gary Roberts which should mean that he will be in amazing shape and ready for a breakout season.